Barry Douglas

Barry Douglas has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Moscow. As Artistic Director of Camerata Ireland and the Clandeboye Festival, he continues to celebrate his Irish heritage whilst also maintaining a busy international touring schedule.

The 16/17 season sees Barry performing two full Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto cycles in Ireland with the RTE Orchestra in Dublin and the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast. He also gives two performances of Tchaikovsky’s first Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, and opened the St. Petersburg Philharmonic’s concert season, all marking the 30th anniversary of his Tchaikovsky International Competition win.

Other recent and future highlights include performances at BBC Proms in the Park with Ulster Orchestra, a tour with Brussels Philharmonic; and appearances with Prague Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, and the Asturias and Galicia Symphony orchestras. He is a featured artist at the Kanazawa festival in Japan, and is touring the UK extensively in recital. He also recently gave the premiere of Kevin Volans’ fourth piano concerto with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and will appear at Verbier in July 2017.

He has previously given concerts with the BBC Scottish Symphony, London Symphony, Russian National, Cincinnati Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Staatskapelle, Halle, Orchestre National de France, Seattle Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras, among others. Barry regularly plays in recitals throughout the world, with recent performances in the UK, the Netherlands, Armenia, Mexico and the US.

Barry is an exclusive Chandos recording artist. He recently completed recording the full works for solo piano of Brahms, the six albums of which have received much critical praise. International Record Review wrote that “this is indeed Brahms playing of the utmost integrity and authority… this cycle looks set to become a benchmark version.” The interesting programming of each disc presents each album as a stand-alone recital, providing a varied and engaging listening experience. His current recording project focusses on the solo piano works of Schubert; the first disc was released last season and the second will be released later this season. Also with Chandos Barry is exploring Irish folk music through his own arrangements, working with ancient melodies through to pieces by contemporary song writers. The first in this series, Celtic Reflections, was released in September 2014 and earlier this season a second disc was released: Celtic Airs.

In 1999 Barry Douglas founded the chamber orchestra Camerata Ireland to celebrate and nurture the very best of young musicians from both Northern and the Republic of Ireland. In addition to striving for musical excellence, one of the orchestra’s aims is to further the peace process in Ireland by promoting dialogue and collaboration through its musical education programmes. Barry regularly tours with Camerata Ireland throughout the world and will visit the US and South America this season. Highlights of the past seasons were Camerata Ireland’s debut at the BBC Proms in London and a world premiere of a new cantata commissioned by The Honourable The Irish Society, “At Sixes and Sevens”, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra to celebrate Derry-Londonderry becoming City of Culture 2013.

Barry Douglas received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year’s Honours List for services to music.